Long-lasting activities with high demand in cognitive control are known to result in cognitive fatigue. However, the reason for control cost inflation remains elusive. A neurometabolic account was proposed in a recent study combining magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) with daylong execution of behavioral tasks. It suggests that control cost during high-demand work is related to the necessity of recycling potentially toxic substances, specifically glutamate, which may accumulate extracellularly. As MRS provides estimates of metabolite concentrations, further evaluations are possible how well this hypothesis fits with fundamental consequences from the dynamic equilibrium of intercompartmental glutamate distributions.
Keywords: Cognitive fatigue; excitotoxicity; glutamate; magnetic resonance spectroscopy; neurotransmitter cycling.